William Hooper is best remembered as one of three North Carolina signers of the Declaration of Independence, and he played a part in North Carolina events leading up to the Revolution.
Hooper’s connection to Chatham County is as its first Clerk of Court. He never lived in Chatham, but as Clerk of Court from May of 1771 until November of 1772, he executed numerous legal documents on which his now-famous signature appears. Over the years, several such documents were donated to the Chatham County Historical Association.
In March 2022, we learned that those documents should have been transferred from the county to the State Archives. The state archives division is responsible for the permanent preservation of records of all current and defunct counties, state agencies, and government offices in the state. Records documenting historical court activities, including colonial-era civil and criminal actions and court documents, are maintained in local custody until they are legally transferred to the State Archives for permanent retention. When records are not transferred according to this requirement, the state archives division is responsible for taking action to retrieve them.
We contacted the State Archives to let them know about the documents in our possession, three court summonses, signed by Hooper, and they immediately sent someone to collect them. At the State Archives, the documents will be curated and properly preserved. The Chatham County Historical Association is still in possession of digital copies of the papers, which were created at our request by our partner, the NC Digital Heritage Center. The images and links to high resolution images can be found on our website: chathamhistory.org/resources/Documents/PDFs/ResearchArticles/WilliamHooperChathamClerkofCourt.pdf
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